I was introduced to anime when I was around 5 [Mazinger Z (actually Trazor Z dub), Voltron (US dub), Transformers (hurray for American anime!)]. Then I forgot about it and didn't come back again till my college years with Dragonball Z (first dubbed then subbed). Now I am hooked again.

OK, 62 well-won years here. Good story is good story, regardless of medium or age. Good artwork, point of view and character development will keep me going. I "like" anime but I only like a fraction of it. I don't care for murderous demon robots from future space but Clannad, Chihayafuru, Giant Killing, and even Bakemonogatari or FLCL interest me. I don't particularly care what other people think...I have a hard enough time with what I think.

33 going on 34 and I have to say that I am a sucker for romance/drama anime and manga. Been watching anime and reading manga since my teens. Ranma 1/2 was my first anime and manga! Nothing to be ashamed of! You like what you like. I get weird looks sometimes when I blurt out that I love watching anime to coworkers or someone pokes their head over my shoulder while I am entranced in reading manga on my phone and asks "hey, what you reading?" But I just smile. Live life t make yourself happy I say and anime/manga makes me happy :p

I'm 44 years old. I got into anime because of my two boys (one's 18 years old now and the other is 17 years old now).
They got me hooked with "Naruto" ... then "Naruto Shippuden."
I have felt "the odd person out" because of age, but it is nice to see some anime fans around my age. = )
The funny thing is, the students at my work are amazed I am able to talk with them about anime and manga with them. ^_^

I'm glad you post this topic, I've personally have thinking about this matter because there are quite a lot of young people in this site. However, I find the most interesting opinions and ideas from adults, you can say 20's 30's 40's or more. I think a lot of the shounen fan's should be around 16 years old, and since I'm not really in the stereotypical shonen kind of shows any more (Bleach, Naruto, One peace, Reborn) I actually feel lucky to have adult people to talk about, let's say, more sophisticated stuff, stuff that represents a moral or emotional challenges, or people that is able to appreciate for the art and not only for the large scale action scenes. I'm definitely not saying that all the people around 16-20 years are like this.

I'm 26 and I think that there are animes that I'm able to enjoy in a more deep sense now than when I was a teenager. I would like to be on a group with all the people that have make comments in this topic!

I'm 46, and other than a few series over the years (Elfin Lied, Blue Gender, Witch Hunter Robin) I haven't really had much interest. The recent release of the PS3 app is what got me hooked, and I've been devouring anime like crazy since.